Can the memsahib speak? A re-examination of the tropes and stereotypes surrounding the Anglo-Indian female during the Indian Rebellion of 1857

This essay offers an exploration of the tropes and stereotypes that came to define the Anglo-Indian female during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Powerful at the time, these notions of imperial femininity survived within subsequent androcentric historical discourse. Through an in depth analysis of female accounts of the Rebellion, evidence can be uncovered that gainsays these accepted 'truths,' particularly the mutual exclusivity of male and female realms. This essay documents how the dominant stereotypes of women as 'helpless,' 'domestic' and 'passive' were founded in male narratives of 1857, but also subverted in those of female authorship. The most potent and lasting trope of femininity surrounding the Rebellion, the 'fallen woman,' is also shown to be a product of a heavily gendered discourse in which women were conspicuously silenced.